Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/51

very strong fire again made, which burnt the dome into a complete vaulting of brick over the corpse; and after this a layer of large stones was placed over the dome, about a foot thick; and afterwards the pit filled up with common earth, and so left." See the remainder of the description of this curious discovery, by the Reverend Beale Poste (in the Journal of the British Archæological Association, No. 13, 31st May 1848, 65-68.) Since that account was written it has been ascertained, that similar sepulchral cavities have been met with in the neighbourhood of Aylesford.

7.All Saints, in Thanet.—This church is totally destroyed.

8.Alnoitone.—Named as in the hundred of Eyhorne. In the parish of Hollingbourne was an old manor, called Elnothington, which Hasted styles "eminent" and states to have extended into the adjoining parish of Bersted. He deems it identical with the "Alnoitone" of (D. B.), which it probably is; and, if its limits reached as far as Hasted mentions, the church might have been provided for the district, which is now the parish of Bersted, because (D. B.) notices a church as then existing at Hollingbourne. It is however said, that the last existing manor-house of Elnothington stood near Hollingbourne church.

9.Apledore. This church consists of chancel, nave, south aisle with chancel, south porch, an addition projecting like a transept from the east end of the north side of the nave, with what is now the vestry on its eastern side, and a square western, not high, tower. From the flat buttresses at the angles the tower appears to be Norm., with battlements, quatrefoils, and Perp. windows added. The projection on the northern side also is at least Norm., the coign stones resembling those in the Norm, tower of Northiam church, Sussex. The vestry is E.E. The stones in the angles of the transept are laid in a manner approaching to "long and short work." The nave is very wide; probably because a north aisle has been thrown into it, as at Withyham, Sussex. In the south chancel are a trefoil ogée-headed piscina, and a Dec. tomb under an arch in the south wall. There are some good Dec. and late Dec. or Perp. screenwork, and a few small fragments of coloured glass. The church has been greatly altered. The stones in the angles of the northern projection being totally different from those in the Norm. tower, it appears as if those two portions could not have been erected at the same period; but the character of the former certainly seems not to claim a later date than that of the other. Upon